Manu
Masculine · “man”
Manu is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 701 boys against 5 girls since 1880.
Manu is the first man in Indian tradition — the one who survives the flood — and his name is the Sanskrit word for a human being.
How old is the name Manu?
Manu first appears in US birth records in 1972 — 53 years ago. The typical Manu alive today was born around 2006, making them about 19 years old. About 700 people named Manu are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Manu most popular?
Manu peaked in 1977, reaching #2791 nationally. Today it ranks #4396, 1,605 places below that high. See the whole 1977 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From manu to Manu
The story of Manu
The Indian flood story has Manu warned by a fish, building a boat and being towed to safety, and he becomes the ancestor of humanity — the account is in the Shatapatha Brahmana, older than most flood narratives outside Mesopotamia. His name is the ordinary word for a human. The same root gives English man. Manu is also a French short form of Emmanuel, which is unrelated.
Meaning
man, human being
From Sanskrit manu, a man or human, from the root man, to think; the same Indo-European root gives English man and the Germanic Mannus. Manu is the progenitor of humanity in Hindu tradition and the Laws of Manu are named for him.
How the name formed
- manu
- Manu
Related forms: Manu · Manu · Manu
Pronouncing Manu
MUH-noo
Two syllables, first stressed. Every letter is sounded.
Nicknames for Manu
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1972
- Most boys named
- 200627 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2791reached in 1977
- Change vs 2024
- +27.8%23 in 2025, from 18
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Manu in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Manu in Sanskrit — same name
- Manu in Hindi — same name
- Manu in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Manus among us
people named Manu are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 74,264 born in 2025 was named Manu
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Paddy test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Manu's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Paddy climbed just as high around 1948, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Paddy's path sketches the road Manu is walking now.
Manu sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Manu beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Manu in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning with a genuinely deep Indo-European root behind it.
- Four letters and two syllables, about as easy to write as a name gets.
- The link between Sanskrit manu and English man is worth telling.
- It is used for both sexes in some Indian regions, so forms may guess wrong.
- In French it is a household form of Emmanuel, which is a separate name.
- It is close to Manny and Manuel in an American ear.
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What they receive
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Manu
Masculine · #4396 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Manus are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Manu are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Manu in 2025?
- Manu ranks #4396 among US boy names in 2025, with 23 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Manu?
- About 1 in every 74,264 US boys born in 2025 was named Manu — 23 in all.
- Will my child share the name Manu with classmates?
- Manu will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Manu
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Odell#4396 · Corwin#4396 · Tennyson#4396 · Marques#4396 · Omid#4396 · Zackariah#4396 · Azeem#4396 · Burton#4396
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Manu? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Manu and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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